<p>Only parts of Florida are more southern than Baltimore and DC.</p>
<p>Most of Florida isn't southern at all. Naples, for example. There's nothing whatsoever southern about Calle Ocho, the Palm Beaches, Fort Lauderdale, etc., where most Floridians actually live.</p>
<p>Southern accents don't dominate even in places like Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando, unlike Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Are you trying to say that Rice has poor science programs, G.P.Burdell? I think you may be a little confused on that point.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No, but Rice engineering is not nearly as good as people in Rice Village think it is. Then again, in my experience 75+% of Rice engineers are in law or business school after 5 years.</p>
<p>"No offense, but you seem fairly ignorant. I'm guessing that you're young and favor the public schools in your region, which appears to be the state of Florida. For starters the admissions numbers you posted are outdated. You're posting numbers from the worst admissions year in the school's history following Hurricane Katrina. The current admissions numbers aren't far off from schools like USC or Boston College. I'm not going to look, because frankly I don't care and if you're concerned you can check, but off the top of my head the current acceptance rate is 27% and the 50% ACT range is 28-32 I believe. All other numerical criteria (such as professor/student ratio, endowment per student, % of profs with PHDs) would also point to Tulane being a superior university." </p>
<p>If you're claiming those stats, then the burden of proof is on you to present them. I'm not going to waste ten minutes trying to find stats that you claim exist. The numbers I put of there were all from college board, and if the numbers from Tulane are a little outdated and low, then the numbers for UF are also probably a little outdated as well.... because it's getting harder and harder to get into UF. Some estimate that the admissions rate could be in the high 20's this year. It doesn't matter what kind of school Tulane was 10 years ago, we're talking about the best Southern schools today. If Tulane does jump back up in the rankings, then good for them. But as of now, UF is a better school.</p>
<p>4.5 Johns Hopkins
4.4 Duke
4.3 U Virginia
4.1 Wash U
4.1 U North Carolina
4.0 Georgetown
4.0 Georgia Tech
4.0 Rice
4.0 U Texas
4.0 Vanderbilt
3.9 Emory
3.7 W&M
3.6 U Florida
3.5 Wake Forest
3.3 Tulane </p>
<p>JWT86, that's a fine list, but I would take several schools off of it. JHU, Wash U, Georgetown, and probably UT all shouldn't be on that list. The first three I listed are in no way Southern.... When you live in a city(Baltimore) that's three hours away from New York, that is not in any way Southern. The reason I would take UT off the list is because I consider Austin and San Antonio to be more West or Southwestern than just plain "South." This is coming from my experience living in San Antonio for three years. Texas is just too large to lump it into one category. I mean, would you really consider El Paso or Amarillo to be South? I would say that Eastern Texas could generally be considered South, but once you get towards SA and Austin, it's just a different feeling. Coming from San Antonio to the Florida panhandle, Central and West Texas are nothing like this.... Houston, on the other hand, definitely can fit the South image.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Good summary of schools with top overall PhD and professional programs
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The flaw with that link is that there's a minimum number of programs required to be ranked. For instance, Georgia Tech isn't ranked on professional programs because it only offers engineering and business. Then there's the fields left off. Why are education and public policy included in professional programs, but not architecture or medicine? (Answer: because Berkeley is Top 5 in the ones listed and not in the ones not listed). And of course Harvard's engineering rank is thrown in, despite the fact that they really don't have an engineering program on the scale of the other schools.</p>
<p>The PhD programs included and not included are equally suspect.</p>
<p>i'm very familiar with southern schools since i go to one of them ..as far as prestige.
1-Duke/Rice
2-Georgetown
3-Vandy
4-Emory
5-UNC
6-Miami</p>
<p>
[quote]
i'm very familiar with southern schools since i go to one of them ..as far as prestige.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So you're very familiar with all southern schools because you go to one? Interesting... I go to a southern school as well and I can tell you right now I know nothing about any of those schools except Duke, Emory and Rice.</p>
<p>Living the south all of my 18 years, I well aquainted with many of these schools and since I recently went through the college search I have talked to a lot of people in the business world and their input as to what schools are top have helped me formulate this list.</p>
<ol>
<li>UVA</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>UNC/Rice</li>
<li>DAvidson/Washington and Lee/William and Mary</li>
<li>Emory/Vandy
10.Ga Tech
11.Wake Forest/Tulane</li>
<li>Florida</li>
<li>UGA</li>
<li>Furman/Sewanee
17.U of Tenn
18 FSU</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>Clemson</li>
</ol>
<p>Zackr13, I am curious: What makes you think that UVA is a better school than Duke? I live in the South as well and, though I am sure that there are students at UVA who are just as or more intelligent than Duke students, from what I have seen in my school and schools around mine the Duke student population is generally smarter than the UVA one. Where I'm from, students accepted to Duke are also accepted to UVA, but the opposite is not always true (however, I am not basing my first statement solely on this observation).</p>
<p>
<ol> <li>UVA</li> <li>Duke</li> <li>UNC/Rice</li> <li>DAvidson/Washington and Lee/William and Mary</li> <li>Emory/Vandy 10.Ga Tech 11.Wake Forest/Tulane</li> <li>Florida</li> <li>UGA</li> <li>Furman/Sewanee 17.U of Tenn 18 FSU</li> <li>USC</li> <li>Clemson
</li>
</ol>
<p>If you're including Rice, then you're including Texas schools as Southern. So it makes no sense to not include UT-Austin, considering it has the greatest academic breadth and depth of perhaps every school on that list.</p>
<p>Yes........</p>
<p>"If you're including Rice, then you're including Texas schools as Southern. So it makes no sense to not include UT-Austin, considering it has the greatest academic breadth and depth of perhaps every school on that list."</p>
<p>Don't forget Texas A&M, Baylor, and SMU. I don't think Texas should be considered in the "Southern" section, but if it is, then the only two schools from Texas getting any love on here are UT-Austin and Rice. But with a top 20 list like that, A&M, Baylor, and SMU could all compete for a spot.</p>
<p>My mistake on including Rice and not the other Texas schools. </p>
<p>And the UVA/Duke thing really came from the people I talked to who said when the read UVA degree or Duke degrees, the UVA grad tended to be a better worker. I truly, don't see much of a difference between the top 5 schools, and really it all depends on the students and what you are majoring in. for example going to Ga TEch or Clemson would be better if you were interested in architecture whereas UVA, W&M, W&L, or USC would be better for business.</p>
<p>Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, Rice, William & Mary, Davidson, Washington & Lee, Wake Forest are the top schools in my book. Virginia and North Carolina are great research U's but too large for my taste.</p>
<p>I agree with zackr13. Such rankings are a little pointless until you get into specific areas of study and purpose. To just say one is broadly better than another is of little use. Most students have rather specific goals and without knowing what they are, no one here has a clue as to which of these schools is more suitable than another.</p>
<p>As someone who's lived in the deep south for many years, I don't consider Texas and DC "Southern." UT-Austin, Rice, Georgetown are all great, but not southern. </p>
<p>As far as Tulane is concerned, I would say that it's more prestigious than UF or UGA though those are two good schools that are definitely moving up year after year. Tulane had 40,000 applications for 1400 spots for this upcoming class. The year before they had 34,000 applications and an average ACT of 31 and SAT of 1365. With that 18% spike over an already great number of applications, their ACT and SAT are going to jump. Their selectivity will be in the mid to low 20's again. </p>
<p>On another note, I'm glad to see LAC's as well as GA Tech mentioned here. LAC's are too often overlooked in the college selection process. Also, GA Tech is a very good school that doesn't get noticed enough.</p>
<p>For reference:</p>
<p>UVA ENROLLMENT (FALL 2008) from UVA’s website
13,762 undergraduate students
18,048 applications
6,274 offers of admission (35% admitted)
3,260 students enrolling
1280-1490 middle half of class SAT I (1385)
ACT not reported</p>
<p>Tulane ENROLLMENT (FALL 2008) from TU’s website
Applied 34,117
Admitted 27%
Enrolled 1550
SAT, Middle 50%
Composite 1880-2150 (equivalent to 1365 average)
ACT, Middle 50% Composite 28-32</p>
<p>UVA is obviously a great school and clearly the difference between the 2008 entering class from UVA and Tulane is inconsequential.</p>
<p>Florida ENROLLMENT (FALL 2008) from UF’s website
SAT of 1210 – 1400 (1305 avg)
ACT of 26 – 31
% Admitted 36.92 </p>
<p>Georgia ENROLLMENT (FALL 2008) from UGA’s website
56% Admitted
SAT-1 Middle 50% 1150-1310
Overall SAT-1 Average 1253
ACT Middle 50% 25-29
Overall ACT Average 27</p>
<p>How is Rhodes academically compared to these others?</p>
<p>Rhodes ENROLLMENT (FALL 2008) from Rhodes’ website
3,747 applications received
1,868 students accepted (50% of the applicant pool)
Composite Middle 50% range of SAT-I scores is 1200 to 1360, with a mean of 1280
ACT middle 50% range is 26 to 30, with a mean of 28</p>
<p>So Rhodes has pretty good numbers, but I think the school is simply too small to have a lot of ‘prestige reach.’ I have met a few Rhodes alumni in grad school and out in business. I’ve always been impressed with their work. That sort of thing always tends to count for more than any 'rankings' in terms of how people regard a college or university. Considering how small the entering class was at 477, I think 50% is pretty selective for that size school.</p>
<p>What's Wofford's reputation?</p>